A bilingual (Russian and Kazakh) work discussing the principles for assigning appropriate punishment taking into account the totality of a crime. Major section headings: The principle of limited responsibility. The dependency of punishment on the nature of the crime, the threat to public safety, and the personality of the perpetrator. The interrelationship and interconditionality of articles from the particular and from the general sections of the criminal code. The principle of priority of the less severe punishment over the more severe. The principle of individualizing punishment. The principle of defining extenuating circumstances. The principle of assigning additional punishment to the basic sentence. Excerpts of pertinent decisions issued by the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kazakhstan.